Candle Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Lighting (earliest) 4:22p Shabbat Shirah (Beshalach) (latest) 5:09p February 8, 2020 - 13 Shevat 5780 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi | Mark Raphaely, President Havdalah 6:10p Shabbat Schedule D’var Torah with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (All services take place in the BMH-BJ Fisher Hall, Our parsha begins with an apparently simple proposition: 560 S. Monaco Pkwy) When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Please help make our prayer service more meaningful land of the Philistines, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people by refraining from talking during the service. around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of FRIDAY Egypt prepared for battle. (Ex. 13:17-18) 5:10 pm: Mincha / Kabbalat Shabbat / Maariv God did not lead the people to the Promised Land by the coastal route, which would have been more direct. The reason given is that it was such an important (Shema should be recited after 6:08 pm) highway, it constituted the main path from which Egypt might be attacked by forces from the north-west such as the Hittite army. The Egyptians established a SHABBAT series of forts along the way, which the Israelites would have found impregnable. Parasha: Page 366 / Haftarah: Page 1152 However, if we delve deeper, this decision raises a number of questions. First: we 7:50 am: Hashkama Minyan see that the alternative route they took was potentially even more traumatic. God Our thanks to Ba’al Koreh Aryeh Fischer for leining in led them around by the desert road towards the Red Sea. The result, as we soon both minyanim this Shabbat! discover, is that the Israelites, when they saw the Egyptian chariots pursuing them in the distance, had nowhere to go. They were terrified. They were not spared the Kiddush for the Hashkama Minyan is generously fear of war. Hence the first question: why the Red Sea? On the face of it, it was the sponsored by Aryeh, Dorit, Liat, Kyra, Nili and Ezra worst of all possible routes. Fischer on the occasion of the yahrzeit of their Abba/ Zaidy Eugene Fischer on Tu B’Shevat Secondly, if God did not want the Israelites to face war, and if He believed it would 8:20 am: Daf Yomi lead the people to want to return to Egypt, why did the Israelites leave chamushim, “armed” or “ready for battle”? Tefillah Warm-up with Ellyn Hutt will not meet this Shabbat, but will return next week Third: if God did not want the Israelites to face war, why did He provoke Pharaoh into pursuing them? The text says so explicitly. “And I will harden Pharaoh’s 9:00 am: Shacharit heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for Myself through Pharaoh (Shema should be recited before 9:37 am) and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” (Ex. 14:4). Three times in this one chapter we are told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 14:4, Kiddush is generously co-sponsored in honor of the 8, 17). marriage of Jake and Shifra Brandt Mordfin by parents Ted and Jayne Brandt, and in memory of The Torah explains this motivation of “I will gain glory for Myself.” The defeat of Rabbi Israel Rosenfeld by members of the community the Egyptian army at the Sea would become an eternal reminder of God’s power. listed on Page 7 “The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” Egypt may come to realise that there HS Boys’ Gemara Class with Nathan Rabinovitch will is a force more powerful than chariots, armies and military might. But the opening not meet this Shabbat but will return next week of our parsha suggested that God was primarily concerned with the Israelites’ feelings – not with His glory or the Egyptians’ belief. If God wanted the Israelites 4:05 pm: Shabbat Afternoon Learning with Rabbi not to see war, as the opening verse states, why did He orchestrate that they Friedman, whose topic will be, “The Deal of the witnessed this attack at the Sea? Century: A Comprehensive Analysis” 5:05 pm: Mincha followed by Seudah Shlisheet, Fourth: God did not want the Israelites to have reason to say, “Let us return to sponsored by Aryeh, Dorit, Liat, Kyra, Nili and Ezra Egypt.” However, at the Red Sea, they did tell Moses something very close to this: Fischer on the occasion of the yahrzeit of their Abba/ “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert Zaidy Eugene Fischer on Tu B’Shevat to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to 6:10 pm: Maariv / Havdalah you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been 6:55 pm: Mish Mosh better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Ex. 14:11-12) —————————————————— Fifth: God clearly wanted the Israelites to develop the self-confidence that would give them the strength to fight the battles they would have to fight in order to Weekday Schedule conquer the Holy Land. Why then did He bring about a state of affairs at the Sea (Weekday services Sunday through Friday morning where they had to do exactly the opposite, leaving everything to God: take place at DAT School, 6825 E. Alameda Ave.) Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the SHACHARIT deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be Sunday: 8:00 am still.” (Ex.14:13-14) Monday and Thursday: 6:30 The miracle that followed has so engraved itself on Jewish minds that we recite the Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: 6:35 am Song at the Sea in our daily Morning Service. The division of the Sea was, in its way, the greatest of all the miracles. But it did not contribute to Jewish self-confidence MINCHA/MAARIV and self-reliance. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. The Egyptians were defeated not by the Israelites but by God, and not by conventional warfare Sunday through Friday: 5:15 pm but by a miracle. How then did the encounter teach the Israelites (Continued on Page 2) DAT Minyan is a dynamic and friendly Modern Orthodox synagogue for all ages and dedicated to meaningful personal spiritual development, community growth, youth involvement, Torah education, and Religious Zionism. DAT Minyan - 560 S. Monaco Pkwy., Denver, CO 80224 - 720-941-0479 - www.datminyan.org D’VAR TORAH CONTINUED Rabbi Sacks (Continued from Page 1) courage? Sixth: The parsha ends with another battle, against the Amalekites. But this time, there is no complaint on the part of the people, no fear, no trauma, no despair. Joshua leads the people in battle. Moses, supported by Aaron and Hur, stands on a hilltop, his arms upraised, and as the people look up to Heaven, they are inspired, strengthened, and they prevail. Where then was the fear spoken of in the opening verse of the parsha? Faced by the Amalekites, in some ways more fearsome than the Egyptians, the Israelites did not say they wanted to return to Egypt. The sheer silence on the part of the people stands in the strongest possible contrast to their previous complaints about water and food. The Israelites turn out to be good warriors. So why the sudden change between the opening of our parsha and its close? In the opening, God is protective and miracle-working. At the close, God is more concealed. He does not fight the battle against the Amalekites; He gives the Israelites the strength to do so themselves. In the opening, the Israelites, faced by the Egyptians, panic and say that they should never have left Egypt. By the close, faced by the Amalekites, they fight and win. What had changed? The answer, it seems to me, is that we have perhaps the first recorded instance of what later became a key military strategy. In one of the more famous examples, Julius Caesar ordered his army to cross the Rubicon in the course of his attempt to seize power. Such an act was strictly forbidden in Roman law. He and the army had to win, or they would be executed. Hence the phrase, “to cross the Rubicon.” In 1519, Cortes (the Spanish commander engaged in the conquest of Mexico) burned the ships that had carried his men. His soldiers now had no possibility of escape. They had to win or die. Hence the phrase, “burning your boats.” What these tactics have in common is the idea that sometimes you have to arrange that there is no way back, no line of retreat, no possibility of fear-induced escape. It is a radical strategy, undertaken when the stakes are high and when exceptional reserves of courage are necessary. That is the logic of the events in this week’s parsha that are otherwise hard to understand. Before they crossed the Red Sea, the Israelites were fearful. But once they had crossed the Sea, there was no way back. To be sure, they still complained about water and food. But their ability to fight and defeat the Amalekites showed how profoundly they had changed.